Animal Crossing 3.0 Update Impressions
I have not played Animal Crossing in a long time, but the 3.0 update and the new Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game have me playing again in a big way. Arguably, the new content isn’t even what’s keeping me busy each and every day! I sunk my old island to the depths of the seas, and started up a brand new island. To be fair, I started my island a few weeks ago to prepare for this update, but I’m still in the grind of those everyday chores that get your island closer and closer to 5 stars.
The 3.0 update for Animal Crossing has brought a ton of new content, though, all of which I’ve been enjoying. The new hotel is a great place to stretch those design muscles, creating rooms based on specific themes provided by Kapp’n and his family. Leilani runs the main desk and will ask you decorate rooms to attract new visitors. Your reward is hotel tickets, which can be used to purchase brand new items to use around your island. I’m not big into designing, but getting the tickets is actually pretty easy. Can you even fail these hotel decoration requests?
Tickets can be earned in other ways as well. On the dock near Kapp’n’s boat is a request bin where people off the island can request you to make specific items. As you make and deliver these items to the box, you can earn even more hotel tickets! I actually love having this here, because if decorating day-in and day-out isn’t your thing, there are other ways to get the tickets and buy the items in the shop.
There are new themes introduces as well. There is a host of LEGO related items you can purchase and add to your island, and while you don’t really get to build with blocks individually – that would have been cool – you can get yourself a really nice LEGO room in your house! And if you have some The Legend of Zelda amiibo lying around, scan those in to invite new people to your island who can stay as residents, and earn some The Legend of Zelda items as well. Unless I’m remembering wrong, it takes a bit more work to recruit these villagers to your island – they will come multiple times and have specific item requests of you. May be this was as it always was? If so, I don’t remember that.
Have you ever wanted to redecorate your island, but can’t be bothered to pick up each and every item you put down so you can start fresh? Welcome Resetti, a brand new character living on your island. Find Resetti and he can instantly reset portions of your island for you. You can select specific areas like the beach, or you can create areas for him to reset. After that, if you are playing on Nintendo Switch 2, you can swap over to mouse mode to decorate with more precision and ease. This reminds me of building and decorating my various field areas in Rune Factory: Legends of Azuma, and that worked really well; this works well too, and I’m quite happy to have this in the Nintendo Switch 2 upgrade.
There are other things included that I haven’t taken advantage of yet – I’m not sure I’ll ever have 12 people on my island at one time, but I guess I can if I want to. And the new Slumber Islands are a great idea as you can work on them, terraforming and all, with friends. My wife and I might do this in the future, but for now we have both been focused on our own islands. That said, this is a really great update for people who really wanted to create islands together in the past, but couldn’t. Now you can – this is Nintendo listening to what fans wanted, in my opinion.
Overall, I think there is a lot here for Animal Crossing fans to be really excited about. With the 3.0 update being completely free, it’s a great, consumer friendly way for Nintendo to get players reengaged with Animal Crossing. And I can only hope that their desire to do this is because a new Animal Crossing is on the horizon. I can hope, can’t I?
Article By Adam
